LOUIS ARMSTRONG & ELLA FITZGERALD - A FINE ROMANCE

A FINE ROMANCE

 ELLA FITZGERALD & LOUIS ARMSTRONG

SONGWRITERS: DOROTHY FIELDS & JEROME KERN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ELLA AND LOUIS AGAIN

LABEL: FINESTAR RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1957

The evening before recording this album, on 16 August 1956, both Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald appeared in an all-star concert that also featured Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson, which was recorded for an album entitled Live At The Hollywood Bowl.

The following day, the two singers, along with the Oscar Peterson Trio – Oscar on piano, with Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass) and Buddy Rich (drums) – were in a Los Angeles studio to record this gem of an album, which became Ella And Louis. With no time for rehearsals, the songs were all set in each singer’s key to make it easier, but this in no way affects the seamless brilliance of the performances.

Another challenge for “Pops” was the fact that the material was not his normal repertoire, meaning he had to learn things on the fly in the studio. Again, there’s no hint of any issues, which all goes to highlight Armstrong’s innate musical ability.

The warmth of their Ella and Louis’ vocals is a joy to behold, as you can hear on ‘Cheek To Cheek’, ‘Moonlight In Vermont’ and ‘The Nearness Of You’. At the end of the year, Ella And Louis was at Nº.1 on the Billboard Jazz Best Seller list as well as making Nº.12 on the mainstream chart.

The collaborations between Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong have attracted much attention over the years. The artists were both widely known icons not just in the areas of big band, jazz, and swing music but across 20th century popular music in general. The two African-American musicians produced three official releases together in Ella and Louis (1956), Ella and Louis Again (1957), and Porgy and Bess (1959). Each release earned both commercial and critical success. As well, tracks related to those albums have also appeared in various forms in multi-artist collections and other such records.

In terms of touring performances, Fitzgerald once again teamed up with Armstrong, after the success of their first album, to hold a series of concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. The duo's music proved popular with the live audiences. Two live tracks from those 1956 concerts would end up being released as album bonus material in the 1990s.

Ella Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an African-American jazz vocalist often referred to by honorific nicknames such as the "First Lady of Song" and the "Queen of Jazz". "Lady Ella" attracted notoriety for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, lyrical phrasing, and vocal intonation; her instrument-like improvisational ability with her voice, particularly in her scat singing, proved popular with many audiences. In the 1950s, the depth and scope of her many releases had already attracted major attention. Many critics of the time regarded her as one of the best female vocalists still making music.

Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971) was an African-American jazz singer and trumpeter as well as composer who ended up being one of the most pivotal and influential figures in not just jazz-related styles but across popular music. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras both musically and also in terms of U.S. culture. Coming to prominence first as an inventive player, Armstrong attracted notice for shifting the focus in his records from collective improvisations to turn-by-turn solo performances. Like Fitzgerald, Armstrong picked up popular nicknames, in his case "Pops" and "Satchmo", that stuck, and critics praised him by the 1950s as a sort of elder statesmen of popular music.

Fitzgerald appeared in many duets in the Forties, appearing on recordings with, among others, The Ink Spots, Louis Jordan and Louis Armstrong as well as a host of instrumentalists from the Jazz At The Philharmonic troupe. The idea of entire duet album came about from Verve's Norman Granz who had the idea to pair Fitzgerald and Armstrong. Granz also persuaded Armstrong to forsake his own trad jazz group and embrace the modern sound of Oscar Peterson and composers such as Porter and Berlin. Fitzgerald allowed Louis to choose the keys in which to sing the repertoire and together they recorded the first of three albums, Ella and Louis.

A fine romance, with no kisses

A fine romance, my friend this is

We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes

But you're as cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes

A fine romance, you won't nestle

A fine romance, you won't wrestle

I might as well play bridge

With my old maid aunt

I haven't got a chance

This is a fine romance

A fine romance, my good fellow

You take romance, I'll take hello

You're calmer than the seals

In the arctic ocean

At least they flap their fins

To express emotion

A fine romance with no quarrels

With no insults and all morals

I've never mussed the crease

In your blue serge pants

I never get the chance

This is a fine romance.